And we're rolling.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress managed to come together this week.
We're rolling.
Okay.
All right.
Apologies.
Sorry.
Jump the gun there.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress managed to come together this week to pass a $95 billion
foreign aid package.
The bill was stalled for months in the House until Speaker Mike Johnson agreed to break
the funding into four separate bills and let members vote up or down on each measure and
then repackage them and send one bill over to the Senate.
The measure includes $60 billion to Ukraine for their war against Russia, $26 billion to
Israel for defense, $8 billion for Taiwan, and a fourth bill that gives the social media
company TikTok nine months to divest from its Chinese parent company.
President Biden signed the bill into law on Wednesday.
Joining us now to talk about this bill is Republican Congressman Brian Style who joins
us now.
Thank you for your time today.
Thanks for having me on.
Now, you voted yes on aid to Taiwan and Israel and for breaking up TikTok, but you
voted no on aid to Ukraine.
Can you walk us through your decisions specifically regarding Ukraine and Israel?
From a global perspective right now, we're in one of the more dangerous positions that
we've been in in generations.
Tyrants are tempted when they sense weakness and dysfunction.
We've seen that from a foreign policy perspective for the United States.
I think it's important that we make sure we're standing with our Democratic allies.
So as we look at the importance of making sure we're funding Israel so they can defend
themselves from the terrorist attack from Hamas, but also from other Iranian proxies,
I think that bill was pretty straightforward.
Making sure that we're providing Taiwan and in particular, the U.S. naval fleet, the resources
they need to be able to confront and prevent China from moving in against Taiwan.
I think that's a positive move.
The broader national security bill banning TikTok or forcing its sale, as well as my
bill that addressed some of the terrorism financing that we continue to see from Iran
I think was an essential piece to pass.
As it relates to the Ukrainian funding, I think it is appropriate to send lethal weapons
to Ukraine to allow the Ukrainians to be able to defend themselves.
My concern with that bill was the significant amount of humanitarian aid funding that wasn't
paid for.
When we see this volume of funding, I think it's really important that we go in and we
are very careful in the use of taxpayer dollars as it relates to foreign aid.
For example, there's $300 million in the bill to address narcotics trafficking, an important
topic.
But I think that we should have been looking at ways to be able to pay for that piece of
the puzzle.
Overall, the entire package was signed into law, and I think it's important that we continue
to stand with our Democratic allies against tyrants who are on the move across the globe.
Do you have any concerns about how Israel is conducting their military operations in Gaza?
I mostly have concerns that the Hamas continues to hold hostages, not only Israeli-American
hostages, but U.S. citizens' hostages.
This entire conflict could be ended tomorrow if Hamas surrenders and releases the hostages.
And so I think it's important that Israel has a right to defend itself.
Israel is continuing to conduct operations against the terrorists that continue to hold
both Israeli as well as U.S. hostages.
Looking ahead to the fall, Democrat Peter Barker recently announced he's running against
you in the first congressional.
What do you think are the main dynamics that will shape the election this fall?
I think it's going to be a conversation on the issues, and the policy differences between
me and my opponents are pretty significant.
I know there's an ongoing Democratic primary.
We'll see who the voters ultimately select.
But if we look at Peter Barker's 40-year history, you see a series of votes.
I think are out of line with voters in the state of Wisconsin.
When he was the Democratic minority leader in the State House in Madison, he voted to
protect sanctuary cities.
I think in contrast, we should be working to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
The implications of the unsecured border are very significant in the state of Wisconsin.
It's not only fentanyl that's flowing in.
I can't tell you how many moms and dads I've talked to that have lost a loved one to fentanyl.
But it's also the challenges being placed in communities like Whitewater, City of 15,000,
where the Chief of Police is recognized there's roughly 1,000 migrants that have moved in
in the past two years from Nicaragua in Venezuela.
And so there's going to be a stark policy contrast between me and my opponent.
I think that's actually a healthy conversation to have with folks across the country and
across Wisconsin over the course of the next 200 days.
You mentioned the border and drugs.
And originally, this foreign aid package included money for border security, but it was Donald
Trump who told Republicans not to pass it, not to give Joe Biden a win, so to speak.
Do you have any prospects for that changing and what is the impact of Trump on all of
these issues in the election?
I'd pretty strongly disagree with your framing of that topic.
I would note that House Republicans, we pass a comprehensive border security package.
Unfortunately, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who's refused to bring our bill to
the floor.
He's also refused to bring the bill to the floor that you're referencing.
So I don't think it's fair to say that the reason that it's not there is because of
conservatives that actually note Democratic leadership in the Senate refuses to bring
any security bill to the floor.
They should bring the conservative past border security bill passed in the House now over
six months ago to a vote.
If they have amendments or want to seek changes to it, I'd love to see the conversation.
But the fact that Democratic leadership in the Senate refuses to act and President Biden,
who has the authority today refuses to act, is incredibly concerning.
Today, President Biden could end catch and release.
He could end the abuse of the parole system.
He could reinstate stay in Mexico.
He could restart border wall construction immediately.
He refuses to do that.
It's the lack of action from the president, the lack of action from Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Schumer that's causing us a lot of the problems that we have on the U.S.-Mexico
border.
So looking ahead to this summer, we have the RNC and Donald Trump in Wisconsin.
What impact will that have for the state and for the fall?
One, it's there's no better place to be than in the state of Wisconsin in July.
So I think it's a huge opportunity to show off our state and to show off the city of Milwaukee
to the entire country.
I also think it's a real opportunity for us to talk about the biggest issues facing American
families.
So many people can't afford the things that they need, brought to us by massive values
of inflation, directly related to massive reckless spending in the first two years of
the Democratic one-party control of the Biden administration.
The policies that we need to see moving forward are getting price and inflation under control.
We can do that by addressing the reckless spending and two, the importance of securing
the U.S.-Mexico border.
If we're talking about the policy issues in front of us this summer and through this
election, that's good for the American people.
That's good for the state of Wisconsin.
I look forward to that conversation.
All right.
Congressman, thanks for your time today.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you so much for putting up with our technical issues.
I appreciate your time today.
You're good.
All right.
Hey.
Thanks for having me on.
Have a great weekend.
Bye-bye.